AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Perita shook her head. “She’s more sensible than superstitious. I’ve told her all about what Orthros is really like, and she believes me.”
“So she has no particular animosity toward Hesperines?”
“No,” Perita said, “she’s better acquainted with monsters of the human sort. You understand.”
“All too well. It sounds as if Miranda and I have some things in common.”
“She’s naturally cautious, like you,” Perita said. “Give her some time to make up her mind about you, and she’ll come around.”
“I take it she’s a dear friend of yours.”
“Miranda is one of the good ones, my lady. You can trust her.”
“I could see that from how bravely she defended you,” Cassia replied. “How did you two meet?”
“Well, my lady, since Callen and I began helping you with your schemes, we’ve been…making friends, shall we say, in lots of places. Folk who see things the way we do, who have no love for the king and the Mage Orders. It’s not just lords and ladies who make alliances, you see. And it’s not the powerful folk who keep households running. Even if there’s a civil war, somebody’s got to do the laundry, and you’d best hope the person washing your underlinens hasn’t been kissing the king’s arse.”
Cassia laughed. “Oh, Perita, I missed you so much.”
Perita grinned. “Gods know I missed you, too.”
“You are the best judge of character,” Cassia said. “A friend of yours is a friend of mine. I only hope Miranda will come to see it that way.”
“I’m certain she will. She’ll have plenty of opportunities. We’re Lady Sabina’s handmaidens now, so you’ll be seeing a great deal of us.”
Cassia raised a brow. “Congratulations, my friend. Moving up in the world.”
Perita lowered her voice. “There is nowhere higher to go than being your handmaiden.”
Cassia still thought a free lord’s heiress counted as higher than a bastard, even a king’s bastard. But she appreciated her friend’s sentiment. “I must admit, I rather like not being your lady anymore. Now we can simply be friends.”
“Don’t expect me to drop the title. You’ll always be my lady.” The way Perita said it, it sounded more like an affectionate name than an honorific.
Cassia lifted her medallion to show her friend. “But it is Ambassador Cassia now. Lio and I are partners in the diplomatic service.”
“Well, that does suit you!” But Perita looked rather serious now. “And how are you feeling?”
No easy question to answer. I wish my sister didn’t want the throne. I’m going to be a powerful mage, if I survive that long. I want to go home.
Perita’s frown deepened. “Are you as happy in Orthros as you expected to be?”
That was easy to answer, though. “Oh, Perita, I am. I couldn’t be happier.”
“Ambassador Toothy’s shine hasn’t worn off now that you’re with him all the time?”
Cassia laughed. “Far from it.”
She told Perita all about what life was like in Orthros, and how the revelation of Solia’s survival had interrupted it. She described the Empire and what they had gone through to bring Solia back.
Perita shook her head. “Well, I suppose Lord Lusty Breeches wouldn’t have made a terrible king, but it’s a relief we won’t have to put up with a Segetian on the throne.”
“I only hope everyone else will see it that way,” Cassia said.
“My lady, look where you are. There isn’t a soul in Lord Hadrian’s camp who isn’t rejoicing.”
Cassia had questions about that, but she didn’t wish to place Perita in a difficult position between their friendship and her new loyalty to Sabina. Cassia cast a surreptitious glance at Sabina while she was occupied in conversation with Kella.
“You own your tents?” Sabina asked, clearly fascinated.
